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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Barbara Boxer & Lamar Alexander vs. Jim DeMint & Mitch McConnell

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  September 23rd, 2009 at 09:30 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I’ve been meaning to give praise to Mitch McConnell since last week when he began voting against appropriations measures coming out of the Senate. This is a rare thing for McConnell, who normally sides with the appropriators.

But he stood up and voted no last week, siding with the Senate conservatives. It was a bold move worthy of praise.

Something has happened this week too. McConnell did it again. He sided with Jim DeMint and California farmers against a small fish.

What is pathetic and sad is that both Barbara Boxer and Lamar Alexander sided with the fish over the farmers.

Jim DeMint offered up an amendment to the Department of Interior’s budget appropriations to sidestep stupid environmental studies about a minnow that a judge used to stop water flow in California’s Central Valley, where 50% of the US fruits and veggies are grown.

Senator Feinstein called DeMint’s amendment “a kind of Pearl Harbor.”

California’s Senators would rather their farmers be unemployed and crops left to die of thirst than stop a judge from siding with a minnow. Both Boxer and Feinstein sided with the minnow over the farmers.

Lamar Alexander sided with them.

That’s the funny thing about the United States Senate. Too many senators side with their fellow senators instead of constituents. The fraternity of appropriators in the Senate is a stronger bond than a Senator to his constituents. The people of Tennessee now know where Lamar Alexander’s loyalties lie.

And the people of California know that its Senators would rather save a non-voting fish, than voting, working farmers. Chuck Devore should be able to exploit this one.

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COMMENTS

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  • Oz

    The tricky part is that you have to vote for what is right for AMERICA as well as your constituents — hence DeMint’s vote is the right thing for AMERICA and the farmers in California.

    Maybe Alexander is hoping to hamstring California farmers in lieu of Tennessee farmers.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    He has more constitutents who buy food, than those who grow it.

  • janis

    Tennessee a long time back other than as the source of what keeps him in office. The article states his position most accurately when it says that he cares more about his colleagues in the Senate than he does about the country’s welfare, much less the rubes here in Tennessee.

  • Richard Mullins

    so yes is not helping at all. I’m glad that my senators voted No on this.

  • Streiff

    The issue is a more significant one than an allegedly endangered fish. The Issue is water usage in a state that has an imbalance between the available water and its population and its agriculture.

    We raise rice in the Sacramento Valley, an area that is naturally close to desert. We do that by taking water out of the Sierras. The only reason that was ever feasible is because that water was considered to be free.

    Someone, at some point, needs to have the courage to examine what crops are grown under irrigation in CA and what crops can be grown on a sustainable basis. But we shouldn’t allow this to be done by an unelected, unresponsive judge or federal agency.

  • Achance

    who just loved environmental regulations so long as they were being enforced elsewhere. Everytime the Econazis shut down a sawmill in The West, it increased the demand for Southern pines and Southern Congressfolk just thought it was grand. ‘Course, now that they’ve destroyed the entire West Coast and Alaska timber industry, the econazis have discovered woodpeckers and such among those Southern pines and the game has changed. Maybe Alexander just hasn’t figured out that the Sierra Club is looking at the Smokies instead of just the Cascades these days.

  • janis

    Valley back in the late 70′s from just south of Sacramento all the way up to Oregon in the summertime. Lived in Reno at the time and it was the second or third year of a drought there. At the best of times, Reno is only naturally green along the course of the Truckee River, so I was accustomed to hundreds of miles of sagebrush and varying shades of tan/gray/dusty olive. Looking at miles and miles of rice paddies and other thirsty crops was a dazzling and bizarre sight.

    As with so many things now, “living large” in all its various meanings is getting more and more difficult. Too many bills coming due for all the ways that we as a society have robbed Peter to pay Paul. Common sense solutions such as you propose are certainly what is needed desperately, yet across the board they are the last solutions to be considered, much less enacted.

  • Richard Mullins

    or both. Seeing this a problem on the West coast,New Mexico,Texas and other places while not thinking its coming your way is stupid.

    Art, I sure you might know that I live on the edge of whats called here as the Piney Woods. Lots of trees and yes lots of public land(well not in Harris county further out).

  • janis

    because those trees as a crop got really hammered by the Southern Pine Beetle a few years back. My husband’s back disabled him from working for the better part of 6 months back in 2003 and we spent time just riding around sightseeing in Tennessee’s backwoods areas when he felt up to it.

    Many of the thousands of acres that timber companies owned and had planted with those pines were like something out of a Stephen King landscape. Hundreds of thousands of dead trees standing like so many gray monuments to devastation. Interestingly enough , we have lost the cultivated variety of southern pine on our own farm from the same thing, but the native pine with much shorter needles and smaller pinecones was not nearly as susceptible and is thriving here as it has done for thousands of years. Score another one for nature!

  • Achance

    State Forestry Project Winner in 1966. That got me a trip to Chicago and my first ride on a jet plane. My prize-winning demonstration was on controlling the Black Turpentine Beetle, the scourge of the hybrid slash pines then becoming the standard for commercial timber. Trouble is, most of the chemicals that are effective have either been banned or are so restricted that they’re not economical to use any more.

    That was actually a very good experience that has served me well in later life. You had to give about a half hour presentation on a subject of your choosing with visual aides and demonstrations then you were subject to questioning by the panel of judges who were from industry and the university. At that level it could be quite tough; I was a junior in high school when I finally won state and it had taken me three tries at the senior level. I never failed to place, but winning was tough. Anyway, it made me very smooth in front of an audience and very quick on my feet.

  • http://www.bearcreekledger.com toni100

    Lamar is an elitist and considers meeting with Tennesseans below his status. When he does meet it’s under a controlled situation. He is currently working to cut off mountain top coal mining with the EPA. That’s going to work out real well some of Tennessee’s neighboring states (/sarc).

    And yes, the MOST important thing to Lamar are his liberal peers in the Senate. He definitely prefers their company to any of his more conservative cohorts.

    Unfortunately, there really isn’t much that can be done to change Lamar. He was just re-elected in ’08 in overwhelming numbers. He comes around every 6 yrs and acts like he’s a conservative when he’s not and the rubes buy it. We can only hope this is his last term. I’m hoping he resigns early but that is really pie in the sky.

  • Praying

    what an embarrassment!

  • SunDogII

    Good Grief! anyone who has followed Lamar Alexander’s career knows that he is a big government hero and the bureaucrats best friend.
    I’m surprised that Red State is just now finding that out.

  • Bicycle_Al

    Alexander won his first term against a real conservative due to name recognition, country club Republican donations and Democrat votes. He is a poor Senator but has the name recognition and the funding to get re-elected. Looks like we are stuck with him until he decides to retire.

  • ChattDawg

    It’s ironic the battle is over a fish…Tennessee had its’ own battle with a rare fish with the snail darter in the 1970′s in construction of a dam in East Tennessee (Lamar’s from East TN, Maryville). Turned out the fish flourished in other areas, too, outside of that habitat.

    Looks like Lamar’s suffering from a little amnesia. Maybe this will be his last term. We can only hope.

  • http://www.bearcreekledger.com toni100

    according to the people I know who were around with Lamar as Gov and his election to the Senate. He’s always been a squishy Republican disguised as a conservative. My understanding is the RNSC interfered with the primary and backed the RINO vs the Conservative. Not a major surprise since Karl Rove was running things then. Rove always goes for the RINO, never the Conservative. Cornyn is following the same failed policy.

  • sharonclhl

    We’re not just talking about seasonal crops. I live in Modesto and on the West side of Hwy 99 the almond trees are already dead. Seasonal crops are a loss, yes, but no one is talking about the orchards; peaches, oranges, apples, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, apricots, plums, nectarines, avocados – trees that take years to begin producing fruit. Grape vines take 5 years to produce fruit. The ‘smelt’ are in trouble because ‘they’ve’ been stocking the waters with striped bass that are eating the smelt – not because of the smelt getting caught in the water pumps! The stocking of striped bass is the reason for the smelt endangerment and the threat to eco imbalance. The endangered smelt and the drought are all engineered to cripple the agricultural industry permanently! Another ‘leveling’ of American to third world status! Engineered – planned – premeditated – organized – crisis!!

  • Banjo

    I remember when this RINO put on a lumberjack shirt and ran for president. He was the most pathetic Republican presidential campaigner until John McCain came along and retired the title for good.

  • myfreedomfirst

    Senators requires 60 to pass unless they vote for cloture. Don’t be fooled by the final vote! Go back and look at the cloture vote. If they vote for cloture, they were trying to get the bill pass. If they vote against cloture, but than vote on the final bill, they are fooling you because their final vote is the opposite of their intention in the cloture vote.

  • http://www.redrivercontractinginc.com greggoulas

    All politics aside if that is possible! I chose human survival first and foremost. If Washington wants the minnows so badly, let them be harvested and sent to Washington to be very carefully placed into the large reflecting pool in front of the Washington Monument. Then, Mr. Secretary of the Interior, turn on the water to the central valley of California once again to allow humankind to be fed and nourished. Lets see here…. 40%+ unemployment in this valley because of this minnow??? It is time for common sense to once again reign over this country as it was a basis of the writings of Thomas Payne and most believe one of the foundations of which our Constitution was penned and signed by our 39 Founding Fathers.

    Trying not to be too political here. It is high time for Californian’s to rally behind the cause of common sense as your two US Senators are in favor of the minnow and adamantly against you the citizens and mankind’s survival! WOW. How about they don’t survive their next elections whether Democratic or Republican challengers makes no matter as long as they are looking out for you and mankind and not some minnow that would by the way be great fertilizer for the crops that feed you and I. The Governor has tried several times to have the water sent back into the valley with no positive results from the Secretary (or Czar) of the Interior or the President of the United States. So what to do at this point? Perhaps it is time for the 9th and 10th amendments of the Constitution allowing the States to exercise their rights in behalf of their citizens to be enforced and take Big Government’s grimy paws off of your land and allow you all to go about your business as you have been farming for so many generations you can’t remember! California, your voices must be heard so rise up to the occasion and inform your employees in Washington to do what you tell them or suffer the consequences they all fear in 2010! God Bless you all each and every one and give common sense to those that supposedly represent the will of the people in these trying times.

  • rosannagerbino

    It’s true, there is definitely more to the story. When something like the minnow
    doesn’t add up, there is a much bigger motive. Such as, Someone in high
    places needs the water, or needs to drive out the farmers for the land. Let’s
    see, could it be Nancy Pelosi’s husband who has interest in the Salmon
    Industry? Does someone want the land, using Eminent Domain for Wind Mills?
    Then watch the water flow for the Wind Mills. Mission Accomplished.
    Rosanna